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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the Trump administration diverted 20,000 anti-drone missiles originally meant for Kyiv to American forces in the Middle East.
Zelensky revealed Sunday that he had secured a deal for the missiles under the Biden administration to counterattack Moscow’s deadly, Iranian-designed Shahed drones, which have been at the center of Russia’s mass bombardment campaign.
“We have big problems with Shaheds,” Zelensky told ABC News’ “This Week.” “We counted on this project — 20,000 missiles. Anti-Shahed missiles. It was not expensive, but it’s a special technology.”
The diversion of the weapons was first reported by the Wall Street Journal last week, with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reportedly issuing an “urgent” call to redirect the weapons on June 4 away from Ukraine.
The missiles were instead sent off to American forces in the Middle East as the US braces for possible conflict with Iran over the stalled nuclear deal, as well as the Houthi rebel group in Yemen, according to the WSJ.
The order also coincided with Hegseth’s absence from the most recent Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting, which was the first time a DOD chief missed the conference since Russia began its invasion in 2022.
Under Hegseth and Trump, the US has not approved any new military aid packages to Ukraine, with the administration previously putting a temporary halt on weapons shipments earlier this year.
With Moscow ramping up its drone and missile strikes against Ukraine, Zelensky has called on the US to reaffirm its support for Kyiv and for President Trump to not give up on America’s role mediating the strained cease-fire efforts.
“I am convinced that the president of the United States has all the powers and enough leverage to step up,” Zelensky said, adding that Ukraine already backs the 30-day cease-fire deal proposed by the US.
He also rejected Trump’s latest characterization of the war as “two young children fighting like crazy” in a playground.
“We are not kids with Putin at the playground in the park. This is why I am saying he is a murderer who came to this park to kill the kids,” he said.
Along with renewed military aid, Ukraine is pushing the US to join the rest of the world in imposing new economic sanctions against Moscow.
Zelensky maintains that sanctions from the US will hurt Moscow the hardest as he backed a proposal from Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) to slap 500% tariffs on any nation that buys Russian energy products.
English (US)